A controversial NASA plan to
irradiate squirrel monkeys to
better understand the risks of long-duration spaceflight on humans
appears to
have been scrapped. NASA ordered the project removed from consideration
for lab
time, although the space agency stopped short of saying the study had
been
canceled.

The experiment, which would have been
conducted at NASA's
Space Radiation Laboratory at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on
Long Island,
called for exposing
27 squirrel monkeys to high-energy gamma-ray radiation so
researchers could
observe its effects on the monkeys? health and task performance.
Animal-rights
activists called the project cruel and poorly designed.

In a brief statement posted Dec. 8 on
NASA's website, the
agency said it will move forward only after completing a comprehensive
review of
its current research and technology development plans to see how they
align with
President Obama's plan for human spaceflight.

"We look forward to the findings of
that review, which
will inform our decision-making moving forward," NASA said.

A statement on PETA's website, posted
the same day as NASA's
announcement, thanked supporters for opposing the proposed experiment.

"Well, folks, you did it. After
scores of protests and
more than 100,000 letters, phone calls, and e-mails from PETA
supporters ? the
space agency has quietly called off plans to conduct cruel radiation
experiments on monkeys," PETA said in the statement.

A NASA spokesman did not immediately
return a call for
comment.

NASA has said that studies involving
other primates are
essential to predicting the neurobehavioral effects of space
radiation on humans.

The radiation study would reportedly
expose the monkeys to
radiation similar to what astronauts would experience on a three-year
voyage.

PETA has charged not only that the
experiment was cruel, but
that the differences between the monkeys and humans would make it
impossible to
generate usable data, and that the single large dose of radiation would
not
simulate astronauts' extended exposure.